>>As an example, think quick - is milk supposed to be 
"good" or "bad" for you this week?

This is a problem with the so-called scientific studies on milk.  If a study is sponsored by the milk industry, I can design the study to unequivically show that pasturized, hormone- & antibiotic- laden, with poorly absorbed calcium milk is great for folks.  Who cares if girls reach puberty at the age of 8...  I am not saying that milk is the only factor but our entire processed food model is unhealthy.

>>The basic difficulty with medical studies is that it would 
be very unethical to do the sort of "controlled studies" 
where the controls all die as a result of a lack of a 
specific treatment.

What is really unethical is the lack of corporate and personal responsibility.  When Vioox was being released, the company knew of its potentially deadly side effects.  After the public discovery, the company was slapped with a fine (ie. a cost of doing business) and the executives got their bonuses.  Is it only in America that you can kill 100,000 and profit from it?

Bristol Meyers just got fined $510 million dollars for kickbacks to doctors to prescribe more of their drugs even for cases not approved by the FDA (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7019083.stm).  That kind of money could be used for a lot of GOOD medical research!

>>Another big problem turns out to be that there are simply too
many factors to account for, even when one attempts to do a
clean single-variable study, as opposed to the much less
credible "cohort studies".

Single variable studies should be conducted.  When it comes to health - in honey bees or human - the interactions of different factors need to be evaluated, too, since many substances act synergistically.

>>So, everything you "know" is wrong, everything your teacher told
you, other than math, was lies, and we had all better start every
morning with "I think, therefore I am"...

You can certainly take what your doctor prescribes for you with a grain of salt and seek several 2nd opinions.  It's interesting how patients are often advised to seek a second opinion and not a second set of scientific facts, isn't it? :)

Waldemar

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